There was sad news for Brian Hunt this week when it was announced that Leesburg High School was parting ways with the Orange Belt Conference.That had to be bad news for Hunt because in leaving the OBC the Yellow Jackets will also be parting company with one of the top high school invitational wrestling tournaments in the state: the Tournament of Champions.But there could be even worse news for Hunt and the other Yellow Jackets who wrestle. The status of the entire program is in limbo.Leesburg principal Jim Polk said he was not displeased with the efforts of faculty advisor/coach Bill Taylor and assistant coach David Lopez.

The only blemish on Oviedo wrestler Doug Vollaro's record last year came in the Zac Jarzynka Memorial Ironman tournament, when he lost to Miami Columbus senior Alex Wethy in the final. Even though Vollaro, a junior this season, went on to win the 285-pound weight class at the 2A state championships and had a 54-1 record, that loss still stings. "Winning would mean a lot, especially since it was last year at this time that I got my only loss of the year," Vollaro said. "Winning at this tournament shows that you are one of the best in the country.

The Palm Bay High wrestling room has little resemblance to the nondescript weight room that once occupied the spot nearly five years ago.Inside the room, the walls are decorated in red and black paint with the team's logo - a skull and crossbones. On one wall hangs the captain's plank that lists all the past and present team captains. Another has the Pirates' Wall of Fame, which honors all the Cape Coast Conference champions and state qualifiers.It is fitting that since the day coach Trent Taylor remodeled the room and gave it an identity with a little paint, his program also has found its niche.

A new athletic program hinges on the hope that area youths will take it to the mats, and not the streets. Volusia County Deputy Sheriff Luis Ruiz recently spearheaded a plan to implement a wrestling program in west Volusia's Police Athletic League, or PAL. The nonprofit is run jointly by the Volusia County Sheriff's Office and the DeLand Police Department to provide free athletic and recreational opportunities to young people. "There was no wrestling program in the area for kids before they got to high school, so we wanted to offer that," Ruiz said.

The Lyman Christmas Invitational has always been associated with having the highest quality of wrestling around. It's a tournament that seems to get better and better with each year.The tournament's prestige will now always be felt in the new title - the Bill Scott Lyman Christmas Invitational.It's the perfect name, honoring one of the most beloved, respected and most of all, missed coaches in Seminole County and throughout the wrestling community as well as the football, bowling and golf families.

Richard Batchelor, an assistant wrestling coach at Lake Mary for three years, will take over Seminole County's most successful high school wrestling program this winter when he replaces Doug Peters as the Rams' head coach.Peters, who juggled a hectic schedule as Lake Mary's head football and wrestling coach last school year, stepped down from the wrestling post to concentrate on football.''I feel very good about this,'' said Batchelor, 24. ''I've had offers to go other places around the state and around the country, but I like this program.

A new athletic program hinges on the hope that area youths will take it to the mats, and not the streets. Volusia County Deputy Sheriff Luis Ruiz recently spearheaded a plan to implement a wrestling program in west Volusia's Police Athletic League, or PAL. The nonprofit is run jointly by the Volusia County Sheriff's Office and the DeLand Police Department to provide free athletic and recreational opportunities to young people. "There was no wrestling program in the area for kids before they got to high school, so we wanted to offer that," Ruiz said.

It must be a sign of the times. There is instability at all levels of sports.Just look at pro football. One day, a city has a team. The next day, its franchise is en route to Nashville, Tenn. or Baltimore. Places you would never expect to have a team suddenly find itself in the spotlight.Florida high school wrestling is in a similar mode.A lack of participation and the departure of its coach prompted Mainland to drop the sport. Spruce Creek, once boasting a solid wrestling program, has its mats in storage and its program in mothballs.

Lake Mary coach Doug Peters turned the Rams' wrestling program into a powerhouse, then resigned last year so he could concentrate on doing the same with the football program.Now, Peters is back with the wrestling program once again.After a one-year hiatus, he will take over the head coaching duties, replacing Rich Batchelor. Batchelor, who was also an assistant football coach and an alternative education instructor, will not return to the Lake Mary staff this fall.''I really never wanted to get out (of wrestling)

After establishing a name among Florida's wrestling community, 1991 Gateway High School graduates Mike Seery and Frank Cousins must prove themselves all over again as California University of Pennsylvania freshmen.Seery and Cousins last season comprised half of Gateway's famed ''Four Horsemen,'' a group of lettermen who have been involved in the Panthers' wrestling program under coach Vic Lorenzano the past four years.However, despite a combined 50-5-1 record against 171-and 189-pound competition last season, they must prove themselves all over again.

While most of the finalists at the FHSAA wrestling state tournament nervously waited to be introduced to The Lakeland Center crowd, Brandon Hatchett, Central Florida's wrestler of the year, was laughing and joking with those around him. The deliberate behavior was meant to get into the head of his opponent in the 160-pound final, South Miami's Michael Harris. Harris never made eye contact with Hatchett before the match, and the Oviedo senior made quick work of Harris once they got on the mat, pinning him in the second period to claim his third consecutive state title.

THE VILLAGES -- Most new high school athletic programs understand there will be growing pains. Wrestlers thrive on pain. "We know what we need to do," said Tom "T.D." Talbott. "And we're doing everything we can do to move in that direction." A year ago, Talbott became the wrestling coach at the Villages Charter High School. The new school had started its athletic programs with the more traditional sports -- football, basketball, volleyball and baseball. Wrestling -- well, wrestling just happened.

Altamonte Springs will have its sixth annual Day in the Park from noon to 5 p.m. Saturday at Westmonte Park, 624 Bills Lane. Activities will include music, pony rides, clowns, face painting, games, moon walks, a petting zoo, a kiddie train and swimming. The event is free. Call 407-571-8731. SPRING FEST The third annual Spring Fest-Earth Day will be from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. April 20 at Touhy Park and the Student Museum, Seventh Street and Elm Avenue in Sanford. Sanford, Seminole County Public Schools, Seminole County Extension and Sanford Historic Trust are sponsoring the event.

He's 125 pounds soaking wet, but pound-for-pound, few come any tougher or more dedicated to physical conditioning than Timber Creek's Jason Carapellucci. For one thing, he loves to box and his sports hero is Roy Jones Jr., the Pensacola heavyweight. For another, he is the Orlando Sentinel's Orange County wrestler of the year. Two consecutive third-place finishes at state wrapped up a scintillating four-year career, during which he became the first Metro Conference wrestler to win four conference titles.

Seven Lyman and three St. Cloud High wrestlers have been diagnosed with skin diseases that have resulted in canceled practices and meets, school officials in Osceola and Seminole counties said Thursday. Lyman did not practice or compete this week and pulled some wrestlers from the Tournament of Champions at Lake Mary last week, because seven athletes were diagnosed with herpes simplex type 1, a viral infection often referred to as fever blisters and cold sores, Lyman Principal Sam Momary said.

The Lyman Christmas Invitational has always been associated with having the highest quality of wrestling around. It's a tournament that seems to get better and better with each year.The tournament's prestige will now always be felt in the new title - the Bill Scott Lyman Christmas Invitational.It's the perfect name, honoring one of the most beloved, respected and most of all, missed coaches in Seminole County and throughout the wrestling community as well as the football, bowling and golf families.

In times of crisis, especially one of an economic nature, the ability to adapt before the pinch really hits is what sets some institutions apart.There's no doubt that an economic pinch is about to descend upon Lake County's high school athletic scene.To make certain that teachers, coaches and players are not overwhelmed when that occurs, proper planning needs to be implemented as soon as possible.For a few high school wrestlers at Leesburg High School, it must now seem that someone took too long to begin thinking about solving the problem.

With apologies to other schools in the area, Leesburg High School did make a little more noise this past week than all of the others combined. Some of it was good, some not so good.The news that the wrestling program would be dropped certainly falls under the heading of not-so-good news.With the number of budget restraints, reductions and cuts, the news that the wrestling program would be dropped certainly did not come as a surprise.Nevertheless, it is sad news.Anyone involved with high school wrestling will tell you that few sports require as much dedication.

After four years of wrestling against the boys, DeLand High graduate Kristy Jeffrey is one of the girls at last. No one can call her a sideshow anymore. Call her Olympian instead, in about four years.That's the dream, anyway, if women's wrestling is included at the 2000 Olympic Games in Sydney, which is possible.Jeffrey is pursuing that dream as a freshman at the University of Minnesota-Morris, a Division II school in Morris, Minn., and home of the nation's first collegiate women's varsity freestyle wrestling program.

It must be a sign of the times. There is instability at all levels of sports.Just look at pro football. One day, a city has a team. The next day, its franchise is en route to Nashville, Tenn. or Baltimore. Places you would never expect to have a team suddenly find itself in the spotlight.Florida high school wrestling is in a similar mode.A lack of participation and the departure of its coach prompted Mainland to drop the sport. Spruce Creek, once boasting a solid wrestling program, has its mats in storage and its program in mothballs.